


A Moment In Time

by Ben (blamebenny)



Category: Glee
Genre: Bisexual Sam Evans, Blaine Anderson & Sam Evans Friendship, Blaine Anderson-centric, Cheating, Endgame Blaine Anderson/Sam Evans, Friends to Lovers, Hurt Blaine Anderson, M/M, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Not Klaine or Kurt friendly, Past Sam Evans/Mercedes Jones, Slow Burn, Toxic!Klaine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 19:53:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30026991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blamebenny/pseuds/Ben
Summary: Blaine Anderson and Kurt Hummel are engaged. Blaine thinks that he should be happier than he is, but it's hard when his fiance is constantly working or spending time with his friends instead of Blaine, and especially hard when his best friend and crush from high school, Sam Evans, lives right down the street.Not a safe space for Klainers.
Relationships: Blaine Anderson & Mercedes Jones, Blaine Anderson & Rachel Berry, Blaine Anderson/Sam Evans, Sam Evans & Mercedes Jones
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	A Moment In Time

Things were so much simpler in highschool for Blaine Anderson and his group of friends.

No matter how complicated things had seemed back then, they always worked out fine- a song performed by the glee club and kissing and making up, and things went, for the most part, totally back to normal. Couples broke up, cheated on each other, went through terrible, hard things together, but somehow the dynamic amongst the group was always fixed by Mr. Schue’s next lesson.

The way things seemed to be shaping up for Blaine, real life was not that way. In his mind, when he finally proposed to Kurt and the two were living together in New York City, going to NYADA together, things would be a fairytale like they were his junior year. They’d spend all their time together like they’d always dreamed about, they’d have privacy to do whatever they wanted, they’d become Broadway stars together and things would be good and right again. However, nothing was working out that way.

For one, Blaine was slowly feeling more and more as if Kurt didn’t want him around. He tried to be a good fiance, really he did, but every effort he put forward seemed to come off as annoying and pushy. He brought Kurt lunch in between classes, made breakfast in bed, tried to sing duets with him around the house like they used to, but Kurt always seemed like he wanted to get away from Blaine, so he tried to oblige. He tried to give him space at home; he tried to focus on other activities like playing the piano or going on hunts to find them new furniture or redecorating their apartment, but even that seemed to make Kurt angry at him. He couldn’t understand why he was coming off so overbearing, but the pressure of trying to be a perfect boyfriend, roommate, and student was slowly wearing him down to nothing. The only refuge in his life seemed to be when he’d go visit his best friend from high school who conveniently lived a few blocks away- Sam Evans.

To tell the truth, Blaine had had quite a thing for his friend their senior year, and at times he’d thought that maybe Sam felt the same way- they’d even kissed once in a game of truth or dare orchestrated by their mutual friend Tina, and the way that they had looked at each other after had left Blaine reeling for weeks, but over time, he’d come to accept that Sam was straight and not interested. He’d even recruited Sam to help him propose to Kurt when it was time, which Sam had done reluctantly despite being open with Blaine about his being unsure it was a good idea. The two were inseparable, and the time that Blaine felt he had to spend giving Kurt space, he spent with Sam.

Sam had been dating, up until recently, Mercedes Jones, their other friend who was in Kurt’s grade. The two made a great couple, but Blaine had been secretly relieved when they broke up for reasons he didn’t entirely understand. Seeing them kiss, give each other gifts, knowing they slept in the same bed- things like that made Blaine sick to his stomach a little bit, despite knowing he did all the same things with Kurt. He loved Mercedes to death, and knowing that their breakup had hurt both of them did make him sad, but it also made the time he spent at their home much easier, as the two had stayed friends and roommates despite breaking things off. 

This particular day was a Sunday, and Blaine always spent those days over at Sam and Mercedes’ apartment. The two that lived there had made it a tradition to watch Sunday night football games, and though neither Blaine or Mercedes particularly understood the sport or its’ appeal, they usually humored Sam by popping some popcorn and spending the evening letting him tell them what team to cheer for and what different moments meant to the overall flow of the game. 

Blaine stood in front of the mirror and ran a hand over his cheek and jaw, making sure he was clean-shaven and that his skin was clear. He had adopted Kurt’s skincare and moisturizing routine when they first got together back in sophomore year, and damn if it didn’t work well- he almost never had to worry about how his skin was going to look for a night out or a performance. He was wearing a casual outfit, all things considered with how he normally dressed, composed of a navy sweater with red stitching along the collar and sleeves and red pants. He let his hair stay curlier and more unkempt than normal- Sam had told him once that he preferred the way Blaine looked when he didn’t gel his hair into oblivion, and although he wasn't necessarily sure he agreed with the sentiment, he found himself caring about what Sam thought whenever the two were going to be spending one-on-one time together. 

Satisfied with the way his reflection looked back at him, Blaine sprayed himself with a little cologne and walked out to the kitchen he shared with Kurt, Rachel, and Santana, picking a water bottle from the fridge. Kurt was sitting at the kitchen table working on something on his laptop, presumably for Vogue, so Blaine didn’t bother disturbing him much, simply leaning over Kurt’s shoulder and giving him a kiss on the man’s soft cheekbone. “I love you,” he whispered softly into Kurt’s porcelain skin, squeezing him around the shoulders. “I’m going to Sam’s for football, I’ll see you later,” he murmured before letting him go. 

Kurt turned to face Blaine and smiled gently, though Blaine could tell he was filled with stress trying to write the article he was working on. “Oh, okay honey, I’ll see you later,” Kurt murmured back, giving Blaine a kiss of his own on the cheek before he turned back to the computer.

Blaine squeezed Kurt’s shoulder with his hand again before he turned to walk out the door, picking his house keys off the set of hooks by the door and putting them in his front pocket. It was early fall outside, and New York had become brisk as the leaves turned warm, but the apartment was frequently kept chilly as well, and Blaine felt he could stomach the breeze outside without any kind of jacket around his shoulders. Kurt called after him as he walked out the door to bring home a gallon of almond milk if he had time to on his way home, and Blaine assured him he would before sliding the door open and then shut again after he went through it. 

The walk to Sam’s apartment was only a few short blocks, but Blaine had it memorized like the back of his hand, or like his harmony in his favorite songs. He felt safe taking it alone, and on this particular day he took longer than usual to admire the leaves changing and the pleasant breeze that seemed to carry him along the sidewalk. He stopped occasionally, admiring flowers growing in the grass along the cement and picking up wildflowers that had made it through the ever changing city weather for Mercedes to keep in a vase. He mused to himself as he walked about how, despite a teenage boy living there with her, Mercedes managed to keep their home smelling like fresh laundry and flowers and always had something cooking or hot chocolate ready for the boys. She’d be a great homemaker for the right person someday, he thought, though she was immensely talented and dedicated when she put her mind to something and would never need to be (or settle to be) someone’s housewife. Blaine chuckled to himself at the thought of Sam being her homemaker instead, his face turning slightly warm as he thought about the blonde in an apron baking cupcakes.

Before Blaine knew it, he was on their doorstep with an arm full of wildflowers. Before he could even raise an arm to knock, the door flung open and Sam’s grinning face was in front of him. Sam pulled Blaine into an enthusiastic hug, his strong arms wrapped around the dark haired boy’s shoulders. “You’re here!” He exclaimed, letting him go and ushering him inside before flinging the door shut again. “Come on, it’s starting in five minutes, you’re almost late,” he said excitedly, walking ahead of Blaine and gesturing to him to follow. Following Sam throughout the house was more of a formality than anything- he knew the layout of their home as well as he knew his own, and he often let himself in with the spare key Sam had lent him if he needed to drop something off or if one of the two called him while they were out to check and see if they’d turned their oven or the flat iron off. 

Blaine diverged from following Sam to stop by their kitchen, where Mercedes was standing at the fridge pulling out the drinks they’d want for the evening. She turned to see Blaine standing in the kitchen and smiled widely at him, shutting the door to the fridge and turning to excitedly reach out for the flowers he was holding. “Blaine! You didn’t,” she grinned, taking them from him smelling them deeply. “You’re too sweet, come here,” she laughed, pulling him into a hug. Blaine relaxed into her hug and squeezed her back tightly. 

“Don’t mention it, Cedes,” he assured her as they pulled away from each other. “I just noticed last time I was here those marigolds I brought have been getting a little limp, so I thought I’d replace them.” At her raised eyebrow, he laughed, continuing, “I know, I know, I don’t owe you two flowers. I just like to provide them since I’m here mooching so often.”

“Well, I guess I’ll let it go, then,” Mercedes grinned as she turned and opened the fridge again to toss Blaine a bottle of water. She shooed him away from the kitchen as soon as he caught it. “Alright, now go have fun with your friend,” she teased, swatting at him with a bottle of her own. “He’s waiting out there for you and I can hear him hollering already.”

“Alright, alright,” Blaine laughed, jumping playfully away from her hits on him. He had no trouble making his way into their den himself, the TV room only being a few short feet along a dimly lit hallway. He stopped in the doorframe to watch Sam for a moment when he arrived, leaning a shoulder against the wall as he gazed at the blonde-haired boy. Despite being over his crush on Sam from high school, he never forgot how attractive he’d always found him- after all, Sam was pursuing modeling, Blaine reassured himself, he’d have to be blind to not notice that he was handsome. Somehow, Sam’s hair always fell perfectly into whatever style he was wearing it at the time. He never cared much about what he was wearing, but his shirts always fit him well and showed off how much he cared about maintaining his body. Blaine’s face softened as he watched him, glued to the television, smiling, happier than he’d ever seemed to be in Lima. Though their friendship had always been close, neither of the two were particularly great at emotional vulnerability, and had only cried in front of or to the other a handful of times, but Blaine knew instinctively and from casual things he had said that Sam struggled with his mental health over the last few years. It made Blaine feel good knowing that being in New York away from the pressures of school, football, and his parents was helping Sam be happy- and it didn’t hurt knowing that Blaine being a part of Sam’s new life must mean he was on the list of things that brought Sam joy.

After a moment or so, Sam interrupted Blaine’s thoughts by whooping at the screen excitedly, clapping and fidgeting in his seat with excitement. Blaine took that as a sign to come sit next to him, and he did so with a smile on his face. “Alright, you need to fill me in.”

* * *

The game seemed to fly by, as it always did when Blaine got to spend time with his best friends, and before he knew it, it was time to head back to his own apartment. He stood to leave and Mercedes wrapped him in a tight hug. “Thanks for coming,” she said, punctuating her sentence with a silly kiss on his cheek. Blaine laughed a little bit and squeezed her back before letting her go.

“You know I wouldn’t miss Sunday nights for anything,” he assured her. He felt Sam’s arm wrap around his shoulder and he turned to face his friend. “Your team won, right?” he asked. He knew, of course, they’d all just sat and watched the game and listened to Sam’s enthused commentary of everything that happened, but he had been so excited to see them win that Blaine just wanted to hear it again. 

Sam grinned and tousled Blaine’s hair (his way of acknowledging that Blaine had left it curly for him). “They sure did, bro. _The Buckeyes come in for the win, scoring 83-79 against Pennsylvania,”_ he rattled off, imitating the announcers they always listened to. Blaine laughed and Sam pulled him into a congratulatory hug, the shorter man taking the opportunity with Sam’s strong arms around him to take a deep breath in of his cologne. 

“Come on,” Sam said after he was done patting Blaine on the back. “I’ll walk you out so you can get home before it’s pitch black out there.” Blaine just smiled in agreement, rolling his eyes at Mercedes as they walked past her, who chuckled and shook her head. Sam was always overprotective of Blaine- he seemed to think that Blaine being shorter than him meant he was helpless. He always made Blaine call him or text when he made it home safe, even though the walk couldn’t be further than 3 blocks. Blaine could’ve argued- after all, he was the founder of a fight club at Dalton his sophomore year, and his parents had paid for boxing lessons even after he transferred to McKinley, but he found Sam’s worry for him endearing- it was nice to feel like someone in his life cared if he was around. 

Sam turned the knob and pulled the door open when they reached it, but the view from the door frame made Blaine groan in frustration. While the game was on, it had unpredictably started pouring rain outside, as New York was prone to do. He wouldn’t have minded, necessarily, except that he hadn’t worn any kind of a jacket and he didn’t have an umbrella on him; he’d be soaked through by the time he made it home.

“Oh, shit,” Sam commented as he watched the rain smack the pavement outside. He thought for a second before he smacked Blaine’s arm lightly. “Hold on a second.” Sam turned around and ran up the stairs two at a time before disappearing into his bedroom.

Blaine watched him run curiously. He must have an umbrella or something that he was willing to let his friend borrow- that was Sam, always thinking of other people, Blaine mused as he waited. The smell of rain was wafting into the house, making him think about autumns spent in Lima. His life before transferring to McKinley was relatively uneventful, but every fall semester he spent outside of the academy had been so different from the previous, it felt like he’d lived a lifetime in the last few years. His sophomore year, walking to the Lima Bean with Kurt in their Dalton blazers and red and black umbrellas, memorizing his lover’s coffee order and slowly learning what it was like to care for someone more than he ever knew was possible. His junior year, trying to savor every rainy day he spent curled up with Kurt by the fire through his boyfriend’s last year of highschool. He spent so many days that season dreading Kurt graduating and moving away, so many nights listening to the rain while he cried worrying that when Kurt moved away or started college, he’d find someone who was better than him in every way and decide to move on. Those fears on rainy nights had driven him to make some of the worst decisions of his life. The autumn of his senior year, however, was different for Blaine- he had been unbearably lonely when the year began, and his worst fears had come true about feeling like Kurt had abandoned him back in Ohio. He’d made a terrible decision in response, one he still felt guilty about to this day if he stayed up too late at night. The silver lining, however, had been Blaine getting closer with Sam and Tina out of sheer necessity. He would’ve never become friends with Sam if he had been so reliant on Kurt, and the way that Sam had helped him feel like himself again and stop feeling like a bad person after everything had been more valuable than Blaine could say. 

Blaine was torn from his thoughts as Sam came bounding down the steps again, not holding the umbrella or raincoat that Blaine had expected, but instead his red and cream letterman jacket from high school, folded over his arm. Sam tossed it into Blaine’s arms, the smaller boy looking confusedly down at the jacket and then back up at Sam. “Sam…” he started, shaking his head a little bit. “I can’t wear this out in the rain, it’s your favorite. I’ll be fine to walk in the rain, really,” he said, offering Sam his jacket back. “Really. I didn’t even do my hair today,” he offered with a slight smile.

Sam shook his head. “No, man, just take it,” he said, shoving the jacket back into Blaine’s chest. “It’s from high school anyway. I’ll just get it back from you when I come over sometime.” Blaine opened his mouth to argue again, but Sam cut him off before he could get the words out. “Take it, dude, seriously, I don’t care about this thing. You can pretend you’re my girlfriend if you want,” he teased, moving as if to tickle Blaine’s sides. 

Blaine laughed and jumped away from his hands, unfolding the jacket and examining it for a moment before he put his arms in the sleeves. It was almost laughably big on him, giving him multiple inches in extra length in the sleeves and hanging down low past his hips. Blaine pushed the sleeves up and gave Sam a thankful smile, his face getting warm as he took in the reality of what he was wearing- he’d thought so many times back in high school about being Sam’s boyfriend, about wearing his letterman around the school and walking around the halls with his arm around his shoulders. The jacket smelled exactly the way he remembered from hugging Sam with it on. He’d always loved the warm, masculine smell of leather and cheap cologne that he could only pick up from being wrapped in Sam’s arms or in the jacket itself.

Blaine pulled the jacket tightly around him, crossing the flaps in front so that he was entirely bundled in the warmth of it. “Thanks, Sam,” he said softly, smiling at him gently. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

His walk home that day seemed to fly by, the cold rain pounding against his shoulders and running down over his hair as he jogged to the apartment. Before he knew it, he was on his stoop, fumbling with his keys in order to unlock the door and get in out of the rain. He flung the door open and stood on the mat for a moment once he got inside, breathing heavily as he tried to decide what to do with Sam’s jacket and his wet clothes and hair. 

Rachel, evidently home from rehearsals early that day, looked up to see him and gasped, standing up to come help him. “Oh my god, Blaine, you’re soaked,” she whined, stopping herself short as she noticed the red jacket. “Hold on a second, is that Sam’s jacket?!” she whisper-yelled. “You can not be wearing that when Kurt comes out here, he is gonna flip!” she squealed, taking it off his shoulders. 

Blaine shook his head, handing it to her. “No, he’s not-” he protested, though he let her take it. “I just didn’t wear a jacket, that’s all, and it was raining for my walk home. Nothing is going on, Kurt knows that.” He bit his lip and looked out the window before looking back at his friend. “I learned my lesson about cheating, Rachel. I know that you had to help him through that and I appreciate it, but-”

Blaine stopped himself as Kurt poked his head out of his room, raising an eyebrow as he saw his fiance and best friend just standing in the doorway. “Am I missing a party out there or something?” he asked.

Rachel shook her head a little bit too enthusiastically. “Uhm, nope, no, we’re just standing and talking... about my rehearsal today,” she fibbed, holding the jacket behind her back suspiciously. “You can go back to work now.”

Blaine rolled his eyes and pulled the jacket from Rachel’s hands, casually showing it to Kurt. “It’s nothing, she’s just being dramatic. Sam let me borrow his jacket for the walk home, that’s all.” Blaine didn’t want to foster any suspicion of himself between the two- they had worked hard to repair what had been damaged when he cheated, and he wasn’t about to go back on that now.

Kurt just raised his eyebrows slightly and nodded before returning to his work, leaving Blaine to take the jacket up to the room the two shared. He took a cloth and wiped the leather clean, making sure the beige was dry before he folded it safely and tucked it into one of his dresser drawers. Secretly, he hoped that Sam would be his usual forgetful self and not ask for it back any time soon.

Blaine had accepted back in high school that Sam was straight and their relationship was nothing more than a fantasy. He always feared being perceived as one of those predatory gay men who couldn’t leave their straight peers alone, and so he had gone out of his way to make sure he respected Sam’s boundaries, but it was nice to be able to fantasize a little bit about what could have been when the opportunity came along. He took one last deep breath of the jacket before shutting the drawer for a final time and leaving the room.

Blaine went to go sit in the same room as Kurt, silently taking a seat in a small armchair near his fiance as he pulled out his phone to keep himself occupied until Kurt was done with his article. It only took a few moments before Kurt let out a sigh of relief and closed his laptop, queueing Blaine to stand and come to Kurt’s side. He bent down and gave him a kiss on the shoulder before he placed his hands on the brunette’s shoulders and started rubbing, making Kurt groan softly. 

“So, what were you up to today?” Blaine asked as he massaged. 

Kurt took a moment to answer, caught up in Blaine working the knots out of his muscles, but eventually he murmured a reply about the trend predictions article he had just finished, and they started into a conversation about what they imagined the newest ones would be for 2015. Though Blaine wasn’t a fashion student, the couple had always had fashion as a shared interest, and the conversation kept them both content and busy for the rest of the evening before they headed to bed together around 11 o’clock. 

Despite their pleasant evening together, Blaine could barely sleep, thoughts tumbling around in his brain like it was set to spin cycle. He knew that he and Kurt had been distant lately, and though he didn’t have reason, it made him feel guilty. He toyed with ideas of things that they could do together, ways he could bring them closer, but by the time he finally drifted off to sleep around 1am, he wasn’t any closer to his fiance than he had been hours before. 


End file.
